The Israeli army has cleared an officer accused of repeatedly
firing into the lifeless body of a young Palestinian girl of "unethical"
behaviour.

But the officer remains suspended for poor relations
with subordinates. An inquiry began after soldiers told the story of 13-year-old
Iman al-Hams's death to the media, provoking an outcry among many Israelis.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli troops during
the Palestinian uprising or intifada.

Shooting At The Floor

The killing of Palestinian civilians does not always
make much news in Israel. And it is unusual for the army to launch an investigation
into the circumstances of such incidents, says the BBC's James Reynolds
in Jerusalem.

Without revealing their identities, soldiers from the
Givati brigade platoon told Israeli television how their officer sprayed
Iman al-Hams with automatic gunfire on 5 October in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood
of Rafah - a restricted area near Gaza's border with Egypt.

The investigation did not find that the company or the
company commander had acted unethically.

Israeli Army Statement

"We saw her from a distance of 70m. She was fired
at ... from the outpost. She fled and was wounded," a soldier said.

While Iman was lying, wounded or dead, about 70m from
the Israeli guard post, the platoon commander approached her and fired
two bullets from close range at her head, the soldiers said.

He then went back a second time, put his weapon on the
automatic setting and - ignoring their objections on the walkie-talkie
- emptied his entire magazine into her body.

But the army says it accepts the commander's claim that
he fired into the ground near the girl after coming under fire in a dangerous
area.

It has not explained why the officer shot into the ground
rather than at the source of the fire.

"The investigation did not find that the company
or the company commander had acted unethically," an army statement
said.

"The investigation concluded that the behaviour
of the company commander from an ethical point of view does not warrant
his removal from his position." But the investigation criticised
the officer's leadership abilities.

"Due to these failures the company commander was
suspended from his position, and his future career [in the army] will be
decided upon in the course of the next week," the statement said.

A separate military police investigation into the incident
is continuing.

Comment

From whtt.org

10-21-4

The Israeli Army has declared it was not unethical that
this IDF officer shot two bullets at close range into an innocent 13-year
old girl's head as she lay wounded on the ground and went back a moment
later and emptied his whole magazine into her dead body. Most Americans
would call the brutal murder of a child a horrible crime, punishable by
death or life imprisonment. Why do Americans who call themselves "Christians"
send millions of dollars to Israel so that it can commit crimes their religion
so strongly condemns? mob